Defending Olympic diving champion Ilya Zakharov belly flops his way to a zero point score

YOU’RE the defending Olympic diving champion, the eyes of the world are on you and the weight of expectation of a nation. Then this happens. Poor old Ilya Zakharov.

Top of the flops

THE eyes of the world are on you, the weight expectation as the defending champion is enormous, and then this happens.

It’s been a difficult few days for Russia’s Ilya Zakharov in Rio. His first dive in the 3m saw him clip the board, but things got far worse for him in the semi-finals when he produced a gold-medal worthy belly-flop on his fourth round attempt.

It started well for Zakharov

The disastrous move saw the Russian finish last out of 18 competitors and he was the only athlete to score 0.00 (from all seven judges) in the qualification round.

The dive was later described as “dismal” by the BBC commentator Leon Taylor.

“Wow, that is dismal for the defending Olympic champion. You will see him out, zeros, failed dive ... Bosh, right on his face. Oh look at this,” Taylor said.

After the competition, Zakharov said: “I was flying over the springboard and the springboard was flying in the other direction at me. I didn’t make it work for me so we clashed.

Zakharov was looking to secure a spot in the final ...

“There was a very strong strain and my legs just could not stand the pressure and they gave out. Unfortunately, I injured my knee a little bit. I tried at least to finish with some score, but I didn’t have the height, the dynamics, nothing, so I had to hit the water.”

Zakharov is not the first athlete in Brazil to be handed the dreaded nil points. Earlier this week — and also in the 3m springboard — his compatriot Nadezhda Bazhina looked to slip on the board which subsequently forced her into the water at the most awkward of angles.

Then his luck started to change

And he flopped right out of the Olympics

Originally published as Defending Olympic diving champion Ilya Zakharov belly flops his way to a zero point score